Media streaming is becoming an increasingly popular way of delivering television, movies and other media content to viewers. Media streams are typically point-to-point transmissions of digitized content that can be sent over the Internet or a similar network. Media streaming is often used to facilitate video on demand (VOD) services, local storage and/or remote storage digital video recorder (LSDVR and/or RSDVR) services, Internet Protocol television (IPTV) services, placeshifted media viewing and/or any number of other convenient services.
Various server systems and processes have been developed to store and retrieve encoded video data from DVRs, video servers and/or the like. US Patent Publication 2014/0165116, for example, is incorporated herein by reference to show examples of systems and associated processes that can be used with RSDVR, IPTV and/or VOD systems. US Patent Publication 2011/0150432 is also incorporated by reference to show examples of systems and processes used in managing placeshifting applications in which client devices access files stored on remotely-located DVRs, such as DVRs located within the customers' homes. Other systems and processes could be used with any number of different applications, as desired.
With the wealth of content that is now available via video streaming, it can be a substantial challenge to properly identify and reference particular television shows, movies, video clips and/or other content items. The inability to properly identify programs limits the user's ability to share content via messaging, social media, or the like.
It is therefore desirable to create systems, devices and processes that allow proper identification and referencing of video content available to a placeshifting, LSDVR, RSDVR, VOD or similar client. These and other desirable features and characteristics will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and this background section.